more exalted creature-then would religion become a part of that education, but in its proper place.

But who, I would ask, is there that really wishes the people to be brought up irreligiously? Who is it indeed that asks more than to let children be educated, without offending the opinions of peculiar sects? Money is given for the purpose of education by the State because it is a general good to be applied in the same way to all denominations. At the rate we are going on we shall soon be obliged to have different roads as well as different schools, in order that the Roman Catholics and Protestants might not meet for fear they should attack each other.

The Duty of the State.

I contend that it is the duty of the Crown to put this spirit down. To see that men are not brought up to dwell on these differences in the forms and modes of worship, or let them assume the mere appearance of religion, till in the heat of controversy and bigotry they forget that they are Christians. It is the part of the Government to repress these things, and to introduce a system which will teach them to live in harmony, to enlighten men, to soften themto teach them that religion is a blessing and not a curse, and that the great principle of all religion, whatever garb its doctrine might assume, is the same. It is no part of the duty of a State to see that its population is instructed in the doctrines of a finely drawn, metaphysical faith; and to attempt such a system would only result in the degrading spectacle of a community torn, not by social or political disagreements, but by the more rancorous and deeply seated war of religious dissensions. No doubt the Anglican Church has had a good effect in England, where people are taught to look up to it as the established church of the land, and dispensing peculiar blessings as such; but here, where there should be complete religious equality, what are we to anticipate will be the result of this incessant struggle on the part of each denomination to establish an imperium in imperio, within its own precincts, instead of striving to live in the links of one common brotherhood. What system that calls itself Christian can lead to these heart-burnings and jealousies-which, directing its attention to the promulgation of these principles of disunion, teach the Protestant to look on the Catholic as an idolater, and the Catholic to regard the Protestant as a heretic? How much wiser, how much nobler, to invite a common people-common by birth, by language, and every national tie-to acknowledge in one brotherhood of feeling, one God, one faith, and one revelation.

In an article written about the time this speech was delivered, Mr. Lowe defended the selections from Scripture in the class books compiled for the Irish National Schools, on the ground that they supplied the only religious instruction that could be embodied in the ordinary lessons of 'common' schools. He then showed why, in his opinion, the clergy of the various denominations were alike dissatisfied with this, and demanded something more in the way of religious instruction. The priest, he said, whether Anglican or Roman Catholic, objected to these selections because they were unaccompanied by the definite credal teaching of his church; while the Dissenter who, in his dread of tradition, finds the whole of his religion in braying forth the empty words," the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible," objects because the Scriptures are not put entire as a school book into the pupils' hands. The objection of the first two arises from a desire to exercise priestly power-the objection of the last from most contemptible ignorance.'

Reverting again to the speech, Mr. Lowe put before the Council the two systems-the general or 'common' system of education, calculated to weld the rising generation into a united Australian people, and the denominational system, which could only foster differences and dissensions.

The Two Systems.

Which system, I ask, is the best and most holy; which will most conduce to the happiness and enlightenment of mankind; which is the system which will most harmoniously lead the scattered population of the colony to a sense of the blessings that education is designed to bestow? Is it not the general system-the system of education in common-that we should prefer in a young community like this, while it is yet ductile, while the fountains of the river of education are yet unpolluted by the prejudices of older nations? Are we willing to sell this right to give the means of enlightenment to a community-to disseminate a spirit of harmony and brotherly love-for the sake of a little transient concord? Which is the nobler, purer feeling: to adopt the intended system of social

enlightenment, or to encourage the splitting up of the community into sectarian parties? Apart from the selfishness, or cowardice, involved in submitting to the latter system for the sake of a little peace, could there be a doubt on such a question? Would that Council stop to calculate when such a chance was offered? I apprehend not. It will not be excusable if it does not by every means in its power seek to put a stop to the spirit of bigotry and sectarianism everywhere prevailing. Some there are too old to be instructed, from whom these pernicious principles cannot be extracted, people who have come out with all their burning prejudices deeply instilled into them, and who will bear them to the grave. But finite as its power is for good, and infinite for evil, it is within the sphere of that House to say that these prejudices shall wane, if not entirely perish with the present generation—it is within its sphere to prepare a happier soil in the minds of the rising generation, for those great principles of religion which are inherent in every shade and denomination of Christianity.

Common or Conjunct Schools.

The result was that those schools did enlighten the people-did free them from crime, the offspring of ignorance-did make them wiser, happier, better. What, on the contrary, had been the effects of the denominational system? It had been to keep the many in darkness, whilst for the sake of show it had educated the few; nor could there ever be any other result while the teaching of doctrinal points of religion was mixed up with the principles of ordinary education. I will now touch on another branch of the subject, or rather view the subject in another light. It would appear, whether they would or would not, that this colony was to receive convicts, that the Home Government had so willed it; and whether they received them direct, or as expirees, convictism was to be its destiny. If then we do not at once decide on some general plan of elementary instruction, even that Volume on which our religion is based, in which its precepts are to be read, and its promises made known, will be a sealed book to two thirds of the rising population of the country. And what must be the result? That the ignorant population will greedily receive the invitations to vice and crime, and the leaven of convictism will leaven the whole lump. Instead of rising upwards in the scale, for the reformation of the convicts, they must degrade down to a level with them. What elements, I would ask, are we not letting loose over the land if we shut our faces to the extension of education? If we refuse to give the power to read to the many, in order that the few may be instructed in accordance with religious prejudices instead of becoming the seat of religion, of morality, of

enlightenment and civilisation to which it might have been converted, the colony must sink down into the depths of degradation too dreadful to describe. Polluted and lost, her state would only be that which the poet had pictured, and which, except in the words of the poet, I will not attempt to picture.

Religion, blushing, veils her sacred fires,

And unawares Morality expires;

So thy dread empire, Chaos, is restored,

Light dies before the uncreating Word.

Thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall,
And universal darkness covers all.

That, I believe to be the destiny reserved for this colony if a more extended system of education be not immediately set on foot; and whatever might be the opinion of those whose eyes are blinded in this matter, and who would reserve them for that fate with a dogged determination, I believe it to be the duty of this Council, its imperative duty, to take this matter into its own hands, regardless of clamour out of doors, and to legislate for the present and future enlightenment, the present and future welfare and happiness, of the people by adopting the system I have advocated.

Although the famous lines from the Dunciad may seem somewhat forced in the eyes of Australians and Englishmen of the present day, they were singularly appropriate at a time when English ministers and colonial capitalists had leagued together for the revival of criminal transportation.

With all his eloquence, Lowe only succeeded in carrying his Address by twelve votes to ten, and Sir Charles Fitzroy, following the precedent of his predecessor-prompted, it was said, by the same adviser, Bishop Broughton-refused to place the 2,000l. asked for on the estimates. But, as the subsequent history of Australia has shown, these statesmanlike, if at the time unsuccessful, efforts have borne good fruit. It is to the broad and philosophical teaching of Robert Lowe in these early years, more than to that of any other Australian public man, that our fellow subjects at the Antipodes owe their existing State school system.

CHAPTER XXII

MR. LOWE AND THE SQUATTERS

Earl Grey's Land Bill-Mr. Lowe on Downing Street solicitude-Wentworth and the Waste Lands-Roman Nobles and Australian Squatters-Lowe's appeal to the Squatters-To the Council-Lowe's Reply to Wentworth-His Pamphlet The Division- Review of the Land Question-Agrarian Gamblers -Character of Wentworth-Lowe determines to return to England

ON June 1, 1847, Earl Grey's despatches relative to his new Australian Land Bill were laid on the table of the Legislative Council. They had the effect of consolidating the squatters' influence, and of winning over the dreaded Wentworth to the side of the Government. The bribe was a tremendous one. By the regulations of the Orders in Council, the whole of the Crown lands of New South Wales-which, let it be borne in mind, then included the present colony of Victoria-were divided into three classes, the settled,' the intermediate,' and the unsettled' districts. In the settled districts the squatters' runs' were to be leased from year to year; in the intermediate, eight years' leases were granted to the Crown tenants, subject to two months' notice in the event of any part of the run being required for sale; while, in the unsettled districts, the occupying squatters were granted fourteen years' lease with the right to a second term of fourteen years if the lands were still unsold. Moreover, the squatters of the intermediate, as well as of the unsettled districts were to have what were called 'pre-emptive rights,' by which, if they themselves chose to become the purchasers at the upset price of 1. per acre, their runs were exempted altogether from